Svino - Monte Mataiur/Matajur

Access to starting point:
a) Access from Tolmin: From Tolmin we drive towards Kobarid. On the new bypass that goes around Kobarid on the right side, we continue straight towards the city center. Just before the center of Kobarid, a road branches off to the left towards the village of Svino (the junction is marked with a directional sign). We follow this road to the point where it starts to ascend, and park in a suitable parking spot by the road. We do not continue driving to the village of Svino itself, as there are no suitable parking places there.
b) Access from Bovec: From Bovec we drive towards Kobarid. When we reach the bypass, we leave it and turn right towards the center of Kobarid. We drive through the city center, where a road first branches off to the right towards the former border crossing Robič. At this intersection we continue straight (slightly left) in the direction of Tolmin, but only a few dozen meters, as we then immediately see a marked turnoff to the right for the village of Svino. We turn onto this road and follow it to the point where it starts to ascend, then park in a suitable parking spot by the road.

Route description:
From the parking lot we continue along the road where we parked, and after a good five minutes of walking we arrive in the village of Svino. In the village we notice markings that direct us left towards Matajur (right Sužid). We continue the path left between the houses, where the markings are initially less visible. The correct trail leads somewhat more to the left, soon takes us past the last houses and crosses pastures, after which we enter the forest. In the forest the markings become more frequent, so further orientation is significantly easier.
The path then begins to ascend more steeply and after about half an hour of walking brings us to a wider cart track that comes from the village of Sužid. We continue the ascent along the cart track, which has quite a few junctions, but the path is well marked. Just before a dilapidated old military hut the markings for Matajur direct us left upwards. Here the cart track turns into a steep military mule track that ascends over a rather steep slope, but higher up the terrain levels out somewhat. The path then brings us to a newer forest road, which we merely cross. On the other side of the road we climb a few steps upwards, where we already see the shepherd's huts on Svinska planina ahead of us.
On the mountain pasture we notice markings for the direction left (Idrska planina) and right (planina Sužid). There is no marking for Matajur at this point, but the path ahead is well marked. We find the trail among the huts on the pasture, from where it ascends moderately along a small indistinct valley. Despite the markings, the trail is in places less visible and somewhat overgrown in spots. After about 15 minutes of walking from the pasture we reach a water reservoir, near which we notice mountain direction signs. Here we continue straight in the direction of Matajur along a still less visible but marked trail. The path leads us across an overgrown meadow, above which we join a well-trodden and worn path that comes from the villages of Avsa or Livka.
We turn right onto this path, which ascends moderately and soon brings us to the next direction signs, where we turn left upwards in the direction of Matajur. After just a few steps we step onto the border ridge between Slovenia and Italy. Here the path turns right and continues ascending along a wide, gentle ridge. We follow this path, which offers increasingly beautiful and wider views, all the way to the summit of Matajur, which we already see ahead of us.

Svino - Svinska planina 2:40, Svinska planina - Matajur 1:05.

Along the route: Svinska planina (1214m)

We recommend: trips from the same starting point, similar trips, panorama, summit register